May 28, 2010

In part 1 of his "10 Types of Blog Comments," Matt Warner does a good job of accurately describing the common blog-commenter styles. He obviously has spent a good deal of time reading comments on various blogs, because, it seems to me, certain types of commenters seem to gravitate to certain blogs, and while some blogs seem to attract all kinds, I'd say it's more likely that any given blog will tend to attract a concentration of a few of these types as the majority.

For example, after running this little blog of mine (I'm gonna make it shine) since the fall of 2008, I've seen a lot of comments come through (very, very few are not accepted, and that is mainly due to profanity or something else vile).

In my estimation, this blog seems to attract predominately numbers 1, 3, and 5, with 5 being the majority. True, occasionally a 6 or a 7 will drift through the door and cause a ruckus for awhile, but they, like all drifters, don't stick around here for long. I have noticed this to also be true of folks on my FaceBook pages. Anyway, I thought you'd find Matt's analysis interesting and though-provoking. I did!

2) Non-contributors - These are similar to Encouragers, except without the encouragement. Their comments say I was here and I read your post...like, “I also have a fish named Dorothy,” or “Thanks for this post.”

3) Contributors - Contributors usually leave the best blog comments because they offer something new to the conversation. A new perspective. Additional information. A new insight. They are thoughtful. And they can either respectfully agree or disagree with the post. Overall, they contribute to a healthy conversation and they make the blog post more valuable and helpful for other readers.

4) Destitutes - These are people in need. They might be depressed or struggling with something. They just want somebody to talk to. Somebody to listen. Sometimes their comment is on topic, often times it is not. Many times they have serious questions.

5) Slackers - Slackers are people who don’t read the post. They just read the title of the post and then want to say something. So they write it in the combox. They often strongly disagree with you while making your point. Or they soundly defeat a straw man and feel better afterwards. Or they ask things like, “Well what about X?” When the post spent paragraphs 3 and 4 answering precisely that about X.

6) Brawlers - Brawlers love to fight and argue. They aren’t interested in learning, giving the benefit of the doubt or considering that it was just an accident when I spilled my drink on them.

7) Angries - An Angry is somebody who is just angry at something. They often take the form of brawlers, but worse. They don’t even want to argue or fight about it. They just want to express their anger about something. Often times it makes them feel better to bring others down in the process. Their comments are often inappropriate and hurtful. And they usually end up accusing somebody tangentially related to the post of something tangentially related to the topic and then lumping everyone together and concluding that “You people are all a bunch of losers.” They can turn into real trolls too.

8) Posers - Posers pretend like they don’t care about the topic when they really do. Their comment basically says “I don’t care about this, but I still took the time to comment and tell you. That’s how much I really don’t care about this. And now I’m going to get really defensive about something you said…but I really couldn’t care less about it.”

9) Self-promoters - These people range from spammers and link-baiters to honest people just trying to promote something good. But their comment is all about promoting something else, not contributing to the post directly.

10) Aliens - Aliens leave comments that make absolutely no sense at all. It’s like they just landed on the planet Earth and thought they would leave a comment.

well, I think you are all full of crap...gee, did I just say that, I really like being the REACTIONARY BLOGGER! most of us are just that...no, really, let me just say that I THINK you all do a fab job and that scarcasm is really a sin...drat,DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT...THE ALIENS HAVE IT SINCE ISN'T THAT WHAT AMERICA IS BECOMING..TOWER OF BABEL FOR SURE!SIGNED , THE ALIEN

Great post! I also have a blog. I respectfully disagree that these are the only ten types, though. By the way, I'm feeling really lonely right now. Oh, and you probably should have mentioned something about slackers. Want to take it outside? ARRGGH!!! Ah, who cares about what types of commenters there are? You should really check out my site to find out more. So in conclusion, I'm sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come.

Thanks for pointing this article out: it was certainly food for thought. I generally try to be type 3 or at least type 1, but often wind up as type 2 or 10; I've been guilty of 5 and 6 before, too, and if I'm honest of all 10 at some point.

"You forgot reactionaries. These people want to share their instant reaction and nothing else because using the internet is a fun diversion and not a time to really think on their own."

Sometimes I wonder if the little "react to this post" boxes help to reduce the number of such people in the comments section, though.

Or what about agent provocateurs? Those who come in and drop a sly 'bomb' or two and then sit back to watch the 'stuff ' hit the fan when everyone reacts to their outrageous while they come out smelling like a rose. They are similar to trolls. They pretend to be one thing but make statements that are totally out of sync with what they claim to be.

Me, I'm mostly an encourager, and sometimes a contributor, depending on if I have time.